Dominion of Capital

"Dominion of Capital is a fresh, innovative, and exciting study that makes use of an extensive and diverse range of sources to provide a much richer and deeper analysis of business-state relations from the 1920s to the 1940s than we have previously had. Adding a great deal of new information to earlier work, Don Nerbas takes the discussion of business-state relations to new levels of analytical sophistication. His book will doubtless be appreciated by scholars in political, economic, business, labour, and social history. Thanks to its highly engaging biographical approach, non-academic readers will also find it quite interesting." -- Craig Heron, Department of History, York University "Dominion of Capital makes a significant empirical contribution to our knowledge of twentieth-century Canadian history. The scholarship is solid and up-to-date and the narrative case studies are a joy to read. " -- Gregory P. Marchildon, Canada Research Chair in Public Policy and Economic History, and Professor, Johnson-Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy, University of Regina

Dominion of Capital offers a new account of relations between government and business in Canada during a period of transition between the established expectations of the National Policy and the uncertain future of the twentieth century.

In the critical decades following the First World War, the Canadian political landscape was shifting in ways that significantly recast the relationship between big business and government. As public pressures changed the priorities of Canada’s political parties, many of Canada’s most powerful businessmen struggled to come to terms with a changing world that was less sympathetic to their ideas and interests than before. Dominion of Capital offers a new account of relations between government and business in Canada during a period of transition between the established expectations of the National Policy and the uncertain future of the twentieth century.

Don Nerbas tells this fascinating story through close portraits of influential business and political figures of this period – including Howard P. Robinson, Charles Dunning, Sir Edward Beatty, R.S. McLaughlin, and C.D. Howe – that provide insight into how events in different sectors of the economy and regions of the country shaped the political outlook and strategies of the country’s business elite. Drawing on business, political, social, and cultural history, Nerbas revises standard accounts of government-business relations in this period and sheds new light on the challenges facing big business in early twentieth-century Canada.